WHEN SOCIAL SITUATIONS FEEL HARD
Many children want to connect with others but struggle to understand the social world around them.
You may notice your child:
✓ Having difficulty making or keeping friends
✓ Struggling with conversation
✓ Missing social cues
✓ Struggling with flexible thinking
✓ Becoming overwhelmed by social situations
✓ Having big emotional reactions to seemingly small problems
✓ Misunderstanding others' intentions
A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO SOCIAL SKILLS
Social Skills Start with Social Understanding
Making friends, joining conversations, solving problems, and managing emotions require more than learning abstract social rules.
Before children can successfully navigate social situations, they need to understand people. They need to recognize social cues, consider different perspectives, regulate emotions, and think flexibly about the world around them.
My approach focuses on developing these underlying social-cognitive skills so children can build meaningful relationships and navigate social situations with greater confidence and independence.
Social success isn't just about what children do. It's about what they understand.
Successful social interactions involve:
Social Understanding
Understanding what others may be thinking and feeling and how behavior impacts others.
Flexible Thinking
Adapting to unexpected situations and considering different perspectives.
Social Awareness
Recognizing social cues and understanding what is happening around us.
Emotional Regulation
Regulating emotions and responses to problems effectively and appropriately
MEET SINÉAD
Hi, I'm Sinéad.
Speech-Language Pathologist & Social Communication Specialist
Nassau County, FL
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I’m a Speech-Language Pathologist with over 13 years of experience helping children and teens build the communication, thinking, and social-emotional skills they need to feel connected in everyday life.
Throughout my career, I’ve worked in hospitals, clinics, schools, and private practice across Singapore, Ireland, and the US. That varied experience has given me a broad understanding of child development and of how closely communication, learning, emotional regulation, and social understanding are connected.
Today, much of my work focuses on children and teens who need support beyond traditional speech and language therapy particularly those who find things like flexible thinking, emotional regulation, perspective taking, problem solving, friendships, or navigating the social world challenging.
Through imaginative play, conversation,and real-life problem solving, we work on skills such as sharing an imagination, expressing thoughts and feelings, understanding other perspectives, adapting when things don’t go as expected, solving social-emotional problems, and fostering successful relationships with peers
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My approach brings together my background in speech and language development with advanced training in Social Thinking®, PEERS®, DIR®/Floortime, Hanen®, and other developmental and play-based approaches. I take a relationship-based approach to therapy. Rather than working on skills in isolation, I look at the whole child and the underlying abilities that help them communicate, connect and regulate successfully.
